Chapter 1

I am 46 years old and was married to the love of my life for the 24 years. I lost her to cancer six months ago and have been miserable for the majority of the time since her passing.

About a month ago our families, hers and mine, descended on the apartment I was living in with intent to pull me out of it.

We had lived a great life even though we could not have the family we dreamed of due to her inability to have children. She had been born with a genetic defect and was unable to produce or carry an egg to fruition.

So we dove into the business she started with great intensity. It became very successful after a few years of development and a great staff. This allowed us to live a materialistic lifestyle. After her passing, I found it difficult to go home or to the office.

I decided to sell everything before I ran it into the ground. The house was easy it was in a sought after neighborhood and built with an open concept floor plan made for entertaining.

The business was a different story. It was built to fill a niche market in the high tech world making it difficult to find someone who understood the ins and outs to keep it going.

The senior staff requested a meeting with me regarding the sale. They wanted to buy it from me.

My wife was the driving force that built the business up. Starting from our home office into an international player with everything being paid for in cash as the business grew. It was beyond their reach financially. They were only able to come up with about 60% of what the business was worth. They also had a signed letter from the bank that would allow me to carry the difference on a personal note as long as my loan subordinated the loan from the bank. Their offer caught me totally off guard.

I requested some time in what is still my office, though I had not been there for a number of months. A number of offers were on the table, all at near or more than full asking price. But, these are the guys who helped us build the company. It was time to contact my accountants and attorneys to sort out the offers and evaluate each one enough make a decision.

I decided to make a counter offer to the Board of Directors.

The first item my attorneys and I agreed on was that of all the offers, this was the only offer that would keep the company together as one unit. The company had branched out into many fields, while still integrated as a single operating unit in support of each other.

The other item I committed to was that I would setup and manage a trust honoring my deceased wife. 50% of proceeds from the sale would be set aside for philanthropic donations in her name.

I also requested that the company name didn’t change for ten years, also in honor of my deceased wife. The board voted unanimously to approve this line item in the contract along with the other two.

The entire 40 page purchase contract, reviewed by each team attorneys was signed by the Board of Directors, then me.

Due to the size of the sale, a number challenges in court had to be dealt with. Mainly due to the fact I accepted far less than all other offers. None of the challenges were viable since it was a privately owned company and I could do whatever I wanted. Now it is time to get on with my life or our families would become unbearable.

Let’s fast forward about a year.

I did start to live, getting myself back into shape with a private trainer. The regime consisted of resistance training three times a week and running three times a week. The run usually consisted of a 3 – 5 mile jog along the beach, park, or trail in the hills surrounding my new home. I also hired a personal chef who cooked healthy meals for me every day. And it showed, I have lost a total of 22 inches, almost 50 lbs, I must say I was looking pretty good. Yes, I let myself go, to say the least.

My chef also made of list of eating establishments I could frequent that he personally selected, visited, and provided special menus so I order whatever I wanted. In following this plan, most of my ailments pretty much went away. The only one that wouldn’t clear up was my prostate issues, which caused me to have a bit of an ED, erectile dysfunction, issue.

Not that it mattered much I started to venture out on the dating scene a bit. I handled my little issue with the little blue pill or a vacuum pump, sometimes both. Not to say I needed them much, but periodically hormones won out.

It was after one of my runs that this little bit of TMI became important. I had just completed my Wednesday morning 3.5 mile run along the beach and settled down for a cup of decaf and breakfast. My chef provided my special menu to the owners. This allowed for me to be able to order whatever I wanted to eat. The owner was also given rights to use this special menu of healthy options for his customers.

Still breathing a bit deeply, waiting on my breakfast, a couple of officers of the law approached me and asked “could we speak with you for a moment.”

Of course, I asked them “please join me and asked if they wanted anything.”

Their reply shook me up a little as they said “sir, we are asking you to come down to the station and answer some questions for us”.

My reply did not sit too well with them as I replied “questions involving what”?

It was quite obvious they did not like my reply and repeated that they needed me to come with them.

My response put them into action as I calmly said “I am not going anywhere unless I know what questions are so important I have to drop everything and go with you.”

This put them into action and I was laying face down on the patio with cuffs on my wrists. They roughly lifted me to my feet and lead me away to their squad car.

At this point I realized it was time to shut up and wait for my call to my lawyer. We arrived at the station I made my call and waited. I still had no idea why I was in the position I was, sitting in an interrogation room waiting for my lawyer to show up.

As my lawyer entered the room, I relaxed a little, he was laughing like he had just heard the best joke ever told as he sat down. Looking him in the eye, I said, “What the hell is so funny.”

He just smiled and said “just relax.”

The officers took their seats to begin asking their questions, I noticed that they had very concerned look in their eyes.

I looked at them and requested they ask their questions that were so important they had to publicly embarrass me.

No questions were asked. They informed me that I was identified as the person flashing my private areas to a young lady down by the beach and running off in the direction of the beachside cafe.

I laughed and said, for real, are you really serious? Please tell me all that I did and exactly what she saw.

They told me said that I stepped from behind a tree, pulled down my blue shorts, lifted my white tee shirt, revealing my approximately seven inch hard on. My cursed ED was about to save my bacon.

My lawyer spoke up and told me that a nurse was on the way to pull a blood test she would be here within ten minutes.

The lead officer asked “why is a blood test required.”

My lawyer told them all would be revealed shortly. True to his word, the nurse arrived within ten minutes, took the blood sample for the test and started out the door.

She told my lawyer “the results will be in your inbox within the hour and be faxed to station at the same time.”

After the nurse left, the officers demanded an explanation as to what all that was about.

My lawyer explained to the officers “my client, indicating me, cannot get an erection without assistance of a little blue pill or a pump. The pill only stays in his bloodstream for about three hours. If he had pumped up a hard on, he would only be able to maintain it for a max of thirty minutes due to blood flow issues. It would also have been impossible for him to run 3.5 miles which the officers indicated he had completed. It would have been very uncomfortable and would probably have to be released because of the 30 plus minute run.”

I explained to the officers “I have not had an unassisted erection in over 10 years, let alone one seven inches long. That is without assistance.”

This is when my lawyer explained to me “you are about to have a very large infusion of cash into your overflowing reserves due to the way they arrested you in front of your friends and acquaintances at the café. The embarrassment alone was worth a lot to a person of your stature.”

I thought that I didn’t want or need any more cash added to my excessive portfolio. I asked the officer “is my accuser was still in the station?”

The lead officer replied “we have to check and see, why?”

I explained “I would like to talk to her and see if this can be handled without any publicity and no legal wrangling. Of which, I want neither.”

The second officer left to check, when he returned he explained “she is still here, but will not talk to you.

I said “I am requesting she be arrested for lying about me being a flasher and that I am holding her responsible for the humiliating way I was arrested in front of my friends and acquaintances.”

They left and returned with the expected response “she is asking for her lawyer to come to the station.” I smiled and said “we’ll wait, I expected her to need representation.”

My lawyer requested a private room so we could talk. After we were alone, “he asked me what the hell are you going to do.”